Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2017 | Page 49

Aulanko Goes Digital

Photos : Pekka Rousi
Futureproofing buildings , communities and cities was one of the big themes at the Annual Convention of Property Investment Prospects in Aulanko , Hämeenlinna , Finland . Hosted on 3 – 4 November , 2016 , Finland ’ s biggest event for the Finnish real estate business pooled the industry professionals together to talk shop and envision new , brave horizons .

T himon de Jong , an internationally

esteemed expert on future trends , got the ball rolling with key note presentation . He commented that the real estate industry is well positioned to utilise big data to provide customised environments .
“ It is time to say goodbye to ‘ one size fits all ’ thinking ,” he said .
Nevertheless , de Jong doesn ’ t believe that digitalisation in itself will solve all problems – in fact , it ’ s also creating them , as people spend more time with their phones than with each other . He pointed out that the relevance of social interaction is not extinct , and that flesh-and-blood interaction is making a comeback .
“ Amazon , for example , has launched physical bookstores ,” he said , pointing out that finding the right balance is the key here .
Urban IQ
Smart city expert Gordon Falconer was thinking along the same lines with de Jong . The question to ask now is , are we developing future-proof buildings for our children – and how , for instance , can new business models support Smart Cities development ? Falconer noted that with regards to the evolution of the cities , one has to respect the current phase of development that the city is in . Smart cities are all about doing more with less – and disruption has a significant role to play in all of this , says Falconer .
But how smart is the real estate market now ? Real estate is seen as a very good investment target , which has a tendency to raise the prices – and yield demands are at an all-time low . The risks in the Finnish real estate investment market are considered to be quite manageable , since the market is professional and advanced enough to attract foreign investors . Andrew Allen from Aberdeen Asset Management considers the Finnish price level to be an attractive one , with the Helsinki Region reaping most of the benefits . Beyond the capital , however , also other cities are becoming more and more enticing .
Work 2.0
Talking about the trends shaping the industry , Allen noted that co-working solutions continue to be growing in popularity . This represents a challenge for office-makers : as the ways of working are changing , the concept of office is changing , too .
With the digital tsunami taking hold , new types of threats emerge as well . Mikko Hyppönen from F-Secure probably knows more about the digital threats than any other person in Finland . He commented that as Internet of Things is gaining ground , it ’ s important to take a step back and evaluate , what things should be online and what things shouldn ’ t . The fact that it is soon very inexpensive to link physical objects into the internet is not reason enough for everything to have an online presence .
Start Ups Shine
At Aulanko , many speakers shared the view that it is up to the real estate industry to create a new kind of ecosystem where data is shared and innovations are developed via partnerships . Real estate sector , though regarded as a rather conservative industry , continues to push the envelope e . g . in energy savings .
Another indication of the turning tides was Pitch Friday where five promising start ups showed their stuff . Making big data work for real estate players seemed to be one strong unifying theme in the presentations – and the winner of the pitching event was SkenarioLabs which provides property owners with forecast data to aid decisionmaking . l
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